JP Morgan Asset Management has won a $12 billion fixed-income mandate from Clive Cowdrey's Resolution Life.

The portfolio is a mixture of liquid and illiquid fixed-income assets, including commercial mortgage loans and corporate private placements that belong to Lincoln Benefit Life, the US insurance business that Resolution Life acquired from the Allstate Corporation. The acquisition came to light last summer and completed earlier this month.

Matt Malloy, global head of insurance solutions at JP Morgan Asset Management, confirmed the mandate win and pointed to the investment JP Morgan has made in developing its insurance business over the past three years. He said: "We have been focused on developing a global set of resources. We have hired people with an insurance background in the UK, US, Frankfurt, Tokyo and Hong Kong.”

Malloy joined JP Morgan Asset Management from Goldman Sachs Asset Management in 2010 and was tasked with building the organisation’s insurance clients globally. He reports to Mike O’Brien, global head of institutional.

The deal follows an exhaustive manager selection process overseen by Weldon Wilson, the chief executive of Resolution Life, in the second half of 2013, with multiple bidding rounds. Malloy said: “Resolution ran a very robust process and fortunately, we could help. Assets under management are what gets you noticed, but not what solely drives us."

Malloy added JP Morgan has been witnessing increased interest from larger insurers of late as the global low yield, low growth environment forces insurers to rethink their asset allocation models and how they access markets.

Resolution Life declined to comment.

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*Correction: An earlier version of this story stated that Malloy reported to both Mike O'Brien and George Gatch, chief executive officer of the investment management business for the Americas. JP Morgan has since informed FN that Malloy now reports solely to O'Brien. The story has been updated to reflect this.